NIA questions accused in Jagan knife attack case

A day after getting the custody of the accused, the NIA officials brought him from Vijayawada to Visakhapatnam and questioned him at the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) training centre in the port city.

According to police sources, the 29-year-old accused was questioned for three hours in the presence of his lawyer. He is likely to be taken to Visakhapatnam Airport where the investigators will re-create the crime scene.

The NIA may later shift Srinivas Rao to Hyderabad or some other location for further questioning.

Jagan, as the YSRCP leader is popularly known, was injured when Srinivas, a worker at the airport canteen, attacked him with a knife used in cockfight. Jagan was attacked as he was waiting to board a flight to Hyderabad.

The leader of opposition, who sustained a bleeding cut on his left upper arm, continued his journey and got admitted in a hospital in Hyderabad.

After the attack, leaders of the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) termed it as a ploy of YSRCP to gain public sympathy.

Jagan had refused to record his statement before the Andhra Pradesh Police saying he had no trust in agencies controlled by the state government.

YSRCP leaders had approached the Hyderabad High Court seeking a probe into the attack by a central agency. On the directions of the Union Home Ministry, the NIA booked a case on January 1 and took up the investigations.

The NIA Special Court in Vijayawada on Friday sent Srinivas Rao to NIA custody for a week.

In another development, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday came down heavily on the Centre for handing over the case to the NIA. He said the State would challenge the decision in a court.

Naidu vowed to protect the powers of the state. He alleged that this was the best example that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Jagan had joined hands.